Art of heeling shoes



Jun 7 1927.

e J. H. POPE ART or HEELING snoms Filed June 16, 920

Patented June 7, 1927.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH I-I. POPE, OF HAMILTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR T0 UNITED SHOE MA- CHINERY CORPORATION, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

ART or HEELING SHOES.

Application filed June 16, 1920. Serial No. 389,397..

The present invention relates to the heeling of shoes, it more particularly concerning the securing of heels to shoe bottoms by such devices as nails.

An object of the invention is to attain, by simple procedure and means, a firm union between the shoe parts. An example of a highly useful application of this invention is found in the attachment of heels of the Louis type, which, from a tread of small diameter and a still smaller neck rising from the tread, expand by a sharp curvature to a much greater diameter at the heel seat. To drive the attaching nails straight through such a heel vertically to the tread surface, causes their clinching in the shoe bot-tom to be so widely separated from the edge of the heel-seat end as to produce little resistance to gaping at the rand-crease. If

the nails are driven in an inclined direction,

only a small divergence can be given to entering extremities if their bodies are to remain within the walls of the contracted portion of the heel. By the employment of this invention, the nails may be kept safely within the neck of the heel, and yet the points caused to enter the shoe bottom in such close proximity to the edge of the ex-' panded portion that a good joint is assured.

A feature of the invention consists in a method of operating upon shoes, in which the nail or other securing device is caused in its passage through a heel to diverge, under the resistance encountered, from a straight path to one which is curved, the length of such straight path preferably be ing detern'iined by previously perforating the heel through a portion of its thickness, as by pricking from the tread-end to a point adjacent to the neck-portion. The course of the nail may follow, in a general way, the external contour of the heel, so that the nail will be-well within the neck-portion and yet sufliciently close to the edge of the heelseat-end. Since, to properly conform to the heel, the nails arranged about its longitudinal axis must diverge at different horizontal angles, I control the direction of the paths by the angular relation of each nail about its axis. This relation may be fixed by uslng a nail having a lateral projection,

in the form-of a longitudinally extending,

A further feature of the invention involves a shoe constructed in accordance with the procedure previously defined, this shoe having a heel with its sides flared from the top-lift to the heel-seat and provided with a straight opening extending partly through it from the tread end, and a nail passing through the opening and curving through the remaining thickness of the heel and into the bottom portion of the shoe. By such an arrangement, the securing .nails may be caused to follow closely the vertical contour of the sides of the heel, resulting in a certain maintenance of the nails within even the smallest portion of the heel 'and'a close joint at the rand-crease. As illustrated, the nail has at the point a surface inclined oppositely to the direction of curvature of its body through the heel, and I prefer to have upon the nail a lateral projection having a predetermined angular relation to the inclined surface, and co-operating with the heel at the entrance of the opening, ,there being a top-lift for the heel engaging the nail beyond the projection. i

In the accompanying drawing,

Fig. 1 shows in side elevation a portion of a shoe embodying my invention in one form;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the bottom of the body of the heel before the application of the top-lift;

Fig. 3 illustrates the heel body partially pricked or perforated in driving the nails;

Fig. 4 is a broken perspective view of a nail which may be utilized in carryingout the invention;

preparation for Fig. 5 is a partial front elevation of a heel-attaching machine arranged to perform the method of my invention;

Fig. 6 is an enlarged sectional detail taken through the loading device and die-block of the machine, with a shoe tobe: heeled in cooperation with the die-block upon its jack; and i Fig. 7 is a top plan view of the nailrefceiving cylinder mounted upon the loading device.

At S in Fig. 1 appears the bottomv connter portion of a shoe having attached to it'a heel H of the Louis type, the.body of; which has a neck portion 10 of relatively small diameter, expanding slightly to, the tread.

end12 and. heavily in the opposite direction to the heel-seat end 14-, the rear and sides. of the heel thus being upon ogee curves. The transverse dimension of the neck 10 may be as little as of an inch, while at the, heel-seat the diameter. may be nearly three times this. Here the attaching nails Ndriven straight through the heel into the shoetbottomin a direction at right angles to the tread surface, they would come within an area approximately of a ten cent piece. and: would obviously be ineffective tohold the. heel closely tothe upper at the randcrease. If the nails were driven along straight lines in an inclined direction to enter the shoe bottom at the points illustrated in Fig. 1, they would, as is indicated at m, lie almost at the surface ofthe neck, where they might be struck by the trimming knife, injuring this and spoiling the heels. To. keep the nails. fully within the substance of the neck portion and at the same time bring. them into the shoe bottom. well toward the periphery of the heel seat, I prefer toproceed in accordance withv the method described below.

In carrying out this method, I may utilize the heel-attaching machine illustrated in part at L in Fig. 5, this having a frame 16 carrying a. die-block 18, with which co-operate a jack or work-support 20, recipr0ca tory drivers 22 and an oscillator-y loading device or devices 24, each loading device including. a loader block 26. Instead of containing the usual nail-deceiving passages, the die-block and loader block, since the nails used withthe type of heels now under consideration are long, are each bored to receive vertical, cylindrical. holders 28 and 30. respectively, extending above the blocks and held in place by set-screws 32. Both holders are fixed as to their angular position about their longitudinal axes by keys 34, which are seated in recesses in the blocks. Through the holders are vertical nail-reeeivingpassages 86 grouped according to the points at which the nails are to enter a heel H, pressed against the underside of the die-block and against the bottom of the shoe S'which is jacked upon the work-support 20. Vfhen the loader cylinder 30 is in its naildelivering position over the die cylinder 28, the two sets of passages 36 are in vertical alinen'ient, so that the nails in the former, released by the usual shutter mechanism, will fall directly into the passages of the latter, there resting with their points upon the heel. Extending longitudiuallyof each of the nail-receiving passages in both holders and. opening therefrom are slots 38 to admit lateral guide projections 40 from the heel-attaching nails N. Each of these projections is in the form of a small in struck out of the body of-a nail and extend ing longitudinally at one side inprozrimity to but somewhat removed from the; end opposite the heel-entering point. This point 42 is preferably formed by a surface44- inclined, as by cutting or bending, from one side ofv the body to the other andbeaning a definite angular relation about the longitu dinal axis of said body to the projection, 40, it being here shown as diametrically oppo-i site to it. When the nails are inserted in.

the loader passages, the combined relationbetween the slots 38, projections 40 and theheel H: positioned upon the jacked shoe, presents thenail points tothe tread surface of the heel body with the inclined; surfaces turned inwardly from the corresponding elements of the outer curved surface of the heel, opposite which the nails are to be driven. The angular. positionsof all these parts are clearly shownin Figs. 2 and 7. Since, when the nails are dropped into the-passages in the loader cylinder 30 but a relatively small portion. have their projections fortuitously alined with the slots 38, I prefer to provide means for turning the other nails about their longitudinal: axes, so that the projections will be caused. automatically-to enter the slots. As. herein illustrated, this .means consists of inclined surfaces 46 situated between the slots at their upper extremities, these surfaces being furnished by a frustoconical end of the cylinder 30. After the point of a nail hasbeen introduced-intoone of the passages. 36- of the cylinder 30 and dropped, its weight, when the projection 40 strikes a surface 46, causes the nail to rotate about its axis until the projection enters the slot, allowing said nail to proceed. properly along the passage to the alined passage in the die cylinder 28.

In heeling a shoe in accordancewith this invention, since, to obtain the best results, the paths to be first followed by the nails should be substantially vertical to the tread surface ofthe heel H which is to be attached to the shoe S, this heel is first perforated, as indicated at 48 in Fig. 3 of the drawings, by any suitable form ofpricking machine to a depth at which theinner ends of the perforations are at or near the transverse plane of the heel at which the neck portion begins to expand toward the heel-seat end. This having been accomplished, the heel is associated with the jacked shoe in the attaching machine L, and forced in the customary manner against the die-block beneath the nail passages in the die cylinder 28. A load of nails N is dropped into the loader cylinder 30, their projections ell) either directly entering the slots 38 or being turned into cooperation therewith by their contact with the surfaces 46. This load is transferred to the die-block, by which the nails are presented to the heel, and the loader being swung back to its initial position, the drivers 22 descend and force the nails into the heel; At first, as they pass through the pricked perforations, their paths are straight, as determined by such perforations, but when the points 42 penetrate the material of the heel at the ends of the perforations, the resistance opposing their advance exerts a component of force acting at right angles to the axes of the nails. This causes their gradual divergence from straight lines in directions opposite to the inclines 44-, or toward the outside of the heel, these portions of the paths being curvilinear, as appears in Figs. 1 and 6 of the drawing. Such paths, being maintained in the proper relation to the outside of the heel by the perforations and by the relation between the guide-slots 38 and and upon the inclination of the surfaces 4%. This last factor is a controllable one, the degree of divergence from a straight path varying inversely as the inclination of the point. Thatis, the sharper the point or the more acute its angle with respect to the longitudinal axis of the nail, the less will be the departure of the nail from the vertical. Consequently, by properly choosing the nails as to the form of the points, they may be caused to closely follow the sides of heels of dif-' ferent contour and to emerge into the clesired proximity to the rand-crease. The action of the drivers 22 continues until the projection 40 strikes and bears with some pressure against the tread end of the heel body, it performing, in addition to its angular positioning function, that of the flange 143,971 and 143,972, and filed October 25,

Having described my invention, whatl claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. The method of attaching heels to shoes by means of nails having each a radial lon gitudinally extending fin spaced from the extremities of the nails opposite the points, which consists in driving the nails into the heel and shoe under the guidance of the [ins to position said nails angularly about their axes and until said fins re in proximity to the tread end of the heel, and forcing a toplift upon the projecting extremitics of the nails.

2. The method of heeling shoes, which consists in perforating a heel having a contract-ed neck-portion and a portion expanding toward the heel-seat end through a portion of its thickness, and forcing through the perforation and heel a securing device shaped to cause it to diverge under the resistance of the heel-substance from a straight to a curved path.

3. The method of attaching to a shoe a heel having a contracted neck portion and a portion expanding toward the heel-seat end, which consists in pricking the heel from the tread end to apoint adjacent to the neck portion, and driving a nail through the pricked opening and intothe heel in a path generally corresponding to the contour of the expanding portion.

The method of attaching to a shoe a heel having a contracted neck portion and a portion expanding toward the heel-seat end, which consists in pricking the heel from the tread end to a point adjacent to the neck portion, and driving through the opening end and with the incline turned away from the expanding portion.

5. A shoe comprising a bottom portion, a heel having a straight opening extending partly through it from the tread end, and a nail passing through the straight opening and curving therefrom through the remaining thickness of the heel into the bottom portion.

6. A shoe comprising a bottom portion, a heel flared from the tread-end to the heelseat, and a nail securing together the heel I and into the heel a nail having an inclined and bottom portion and generally following tially of the axis to the inclined surface, the contour of said heel, said nail being this projection co-opera-ting Wltll the tread. 10 provided With. a point with an inclined surend of the body of the heel; and a top-lift face turned inwardly from the outside of in engagement With the end of the nailbe- 3 the heel and. with a lateral projection adyond the projection.

jacent to but spaced from the end of the In. testimony whereof I have sign-ed my nail opposite the point and: bearing a pre name to this specification. determined angular relation oircumf'eren- JOSEPH H. POPE. 

